Saturdays at TasteVin

I have been the wine and cheese buyer at a neighborhood wine bar called TasteVin Wine Bar and Bistro located in San Carlos, CA since we opened our doors in August of 2013. I had my first Saturday tasting event in November 2013 to kick off the holiday season. Since then, we have had a tasting every Saturday.

There is always a theme for the tasting, ex: wines from a specific country or region, tasting one grape variety from different wine regions around the world, pairing wine with cheese or chocolate, etc. The last Saturday of every month is the blind tasting challenge – 2 whites, 2 reds and you deducing what it is!

How do I choose the wines for Saturdays? I go to trade tastings constantly. I love tasting through as many wines as possible (between 40 to 70 at a time) and finding wines that are memorable – ones you never forget. I also have reps from distributors bring wines to TasteVin for me to taste. This will typically only be 6-10 wines at a time.

Whenever I taste through a selection of wines I try to do a few things:

look for a wine that I think tastes great, if not exceptional

make sure the wine is at a good price point, if not over-delivering for the price point

decide if it’s something I think TasteVin customers will appreciate

figure out how and when I can use this wine for a Saturday tasting event

If you’d like to follow along, click on the links below for more information on each Saturday event – the regions, the producers and the wines. Or if you are in the area, come on by!